Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro How-To : Managing and Distributing a Portfolio

Acrobat offers some specific commands for working with a portfolio PDF file. Here are a few of those commands:

  • From the Home mode, click Modify on the Portfolio toolbar and choose Secure Portfolio from the pop-up menu (or choose File > Modify PDF Portfolio > Secure Portfolio on the program menu) to specify restrictions and set a password.
  • From the Home mode, choose File > Export > Export Multiple Files to extract the component files of your portfolio in a selected file format. In the Export Multiple Files dialog box, click Add Files > Add Open Files to specify the portfolio, and click OK. In the Output Options dialog box, select a target folder, specify a naming system, and choose an export format. Click OK to process the files.
  • From any viewing mode, choose File > Portfolio Properties to open the Document Properties dialog box, where you can add descriptions, specify security, and so on.
  • From any viewing mode, select an imported movie file and choose Modify > Convert to Flash Movie to change the file’s format.

TIP

One super feature in Acrobat 9 is the ability to use a portfolio for handling forms. Once a form is designed and distributed, forms results can be compiled and stored in a portfolio. Aggregating the form data can be handled by both Acrobat 9 Standard and Pro versions.

Sometimes a portfolio can become very large, and it’s not always easy to keep track of your content. Fortunately, Acrobat offers a customized search feature that lets you search everything in your portfolio, including the information listed in Details mode, and in non-PDF files. To search the files in a portfolio, follow these steps:

  1. Type the terms in the Search field and click Search.

    NOTE

    You can set some criteria from the pop-up menu, including Whole Words Only and Case Sensitive. The Search Entire Portfolio option is selected by default, and cannot be deselected.

  2. Review the returns shown in the Search Results dialog box
  1. Click a return to read the file’s details. If you’re in Details mode, the file is highlighted in the list; if you’re in Preview mode, the result is highlighted on the page, as shown in Figure 2.
  2. Click Previous or Next to review the results.
  3. Close the Search Results pane when you’re finished.

How Reader Gets In on the Act

You can update files in a PDF portfolio using Adobe Reader if the file is Reader-enabled. In a portfolio, each file must be enabled separately—there is no overriding command to apply to all the portfolio contents.